Nailed: Dzine’s Elaborate Manicures

Inspired by the bootleg nail salon his mother set up in their West Chicago apartment, the artist Carlos (Dzine) Rolon’s work looks at fingernails as a canvas for fine art. He has installed temporary salons with a part-time manicurist at both Salon 94 gallery and the New Museum, and for his recent book, “Nailed by Dzine,” he enlisted photographers around the world to document contemporary nail art in their respective cities. The manicured hands collected in the book are organized geographically, and range from cute to homicidal, revealing preferences along the way, from the pointed talons that seem to be trending in Serbia and Poland to sculptural interpretations of BBQ foods and camping trips spotted in California. For the anthropologically minded, the book also provides an outline of the role of fingernail adornment in beauty routines throughout history, from tint on the nails of Egyptian mummies to Ozzy Osbourne’s signature black polish, ending with photographs of Dzine’s own “wearable sculptural nails.” Here’s a selection.